The Reader was an amazing provocative book about a world where no one knows how to read besides a select elite. Within the book, there were multiple clues and blurs that made the book seem more real as something within The Reader’s world, and the word choice was also very deliberate (almost like Strange the Dreamer, but in a different way).
*This post may contain spoilers; honestly I don’t think it has any major spoilers.
Title: The Reader (Sea of Ink and Gold)
Author: Traci Chee
Series: Sea of Ink and Gold
Rating: ★★★
Re-readability: ★ (1.5 stars)
——-
Once there was, and one day there will be. This is the beginning of every story.
Sefia lives her life on the run. After her father is viciously murdered, she flees to the forest with her aunt Nin, the only person left she can trust. They survive in the wilderness together, hunting and stealing what they need, forever looking over their shoulders for new threats. But when Nin is kidnapped, Sefia is suddenly on her own, with no way to know who’s taken Nin or where she is. Her only clue is a strange rectangular object that once belonged to her father left behind, something she comes to realize is a book.
Though reading is unheard of in Sefia’s world, she slowly learns, unearthing the book’s closely guarded secrets, which may be the key to Nin’s disappearance and discovering what really happened the day her father was killed. With no time to lose, and the unexpected help of swashbuckling pirates and an enigmatic stranger, Sefia sets out on a dangerous journey to rescue her aunt, using the book as her guide. In the end, she discovers what the book had been trying to tell her all along: Nothing is as it seems, and the end of her story is only the beginning.
Thoughts:
This book was so interesting, and teeming with various clues. The Reader primarily focused on another intriguing book, which was what the entire plot was based on. There were two plot-lines that interweaved together at the same time, and although it was a little hard to wrap my mind around at first, it was really really well done! I loved the “mind-blown” feeling I got at the end, when I realized exactly how the two puzzle pieces fit together. Besides the plot-lines, there were also many many clues embedded within this book, and I loved how the author was so liberal with her “blurs” and “stains” that only served to cover up more of the suspense and intrigue.
What I Loved:
The way the author embedded more stories within her story was really fascinating. Her ability to work with words was extremely admirable. Her two protagonists were developed very well and had a lot of chemistry. Honestly really loved Archer, the male main lead~
Also, the little quotes and blurbs that the author hid within the novel were great and insightful.
“This is a book. You are the reader. Look closer. There’s magic here.”
I loved how the author combined this strange non-reading world with pirates and magic. Chee threw in tons of stuff into the entire plot, which made the plot a little confusing, but the complicated nature of this book was really what made this book what it was. There were so many layers to peel back and discover, making it really worthwhile.
I also loved the way the author depicted reading as something so magical that it has the power to move things, do harm, and also protect the ones we love.
Some Meh Moments:
Admittedly, there were a few plotholes. For example, how exactly did Sefia learn how to read? It almost seemed like magic, the way she almost immediately mastered the alphabet by herself without anyone to teach her, and just by tracing the letters in the ground. Sure, anyone can show promise, but Sefia literally looked at an A and somehow knew it had an “ah” sound. That was basically how she learned all her letters and that made no sense.
Also, how exactly does literacy get taken away from the entire world? Sure, you can say magic, but does it really take away ALL of the world’s reading skills? I’m pretty sure that a primitive form of communication involves reading, so I don’t really think “educated” literacy is as important as the author made it out to be, but still, the magic that was involved with real reading made reading all the more magical and wonderful.
There might have been more moments that didn’t make sense, but I read this like a few months ago so I can’t remember all of them lol.
Summin’ It Up:
This book was pretty decent~ The plot had a little bit of potential, but it was really the minor details that the author threw in there that made the book good. The OTP was promising, but it did get a little predictable at the end, and a little cliche. Most everything nowadays is cliche, so I guess it was really all about execution, because I definitely did not feel wowed by the ending, or anything like that.
Recommendations
The Speaker by Tracie Chee
- If you liked the first book, you will probably like the second book. For some reason, the second book made me cry so much. I don’t even know lol. The second book though was filled with all those new YA book trends, which kind of made me cringe since The Reader had honestly set me up for something away from that, but overall, all I remembered is: Tears. Lol.
The recommendations list will continue being updated as I discover more and more books! And if you guys know any books similar to this book, I can also add it to this list 🙂
I will be uploading a novel review every Thursday! If a novel really excites me tho I’ll probably upload the day I finish reading that novel XD
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment and let me know how I’m doing! If you want to request a novel review, I will read/review YA novels or Chinese novels/translations!
MerakiTranslations 